iRacing Season 2 Skippy - Brands Hatch (Indy) - Mar 2

[Kerr]

Grats on the win Paul.

I do agree that Brands is a difficult track to drive and I said so before the race.

However it's the drivers responsibility to make sure they are prepared enough to race and drive within their ability.

Obviously each incident has to be reviewed on it's own merit but it's pretty hard to justify the amount of incident points scored.

My race was very short but I witnessed and was involved in accidents that could and should have been avoided.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

sorry to Dave who wanted me to lap him to save on the fuel, but sounds like it was for the best!

Well indeed - I wondered why you'd backed off over the last few laps and it didn't occur to me that it could be fuel until I saw Simmo slow on lap 44. Wish I'd gone with 4.5g now - I'll wager the car would've handled better too!

[Brendan]

I put 4.5g in for every race.  The extra 0.7g makes little or no difference to laptimes and gives that piece of mind that you can easily make it to the end, barring incidents of course 

[Adam Parle]

Me clipping you whilst trying to squeeze through the gap between you and the spinner probably didn't help either.

Ah didn't realise ... not looked at the replay yet tbh.  Are you sure your brother didn't put you up to it after I cocked up his Dalara race last week .....

The car became a real handful going through McLaren/Clearways, it was very unsettled, but the mishap that caused me to take a "fast" tow was actually on the Cooper Straight - touched the grass with a rear wheel whilst wrestling with the car on the exit from GH.

[ross.mcw]

had some very minor contact with Ross, not really sure what happened, but the car felt really weird after that and I couldn't really push.

Probably my fault, I'd made a passing move into Druids and as you turned in our wheels got a bit tangled - sorry if it did any damage.  I almost did the same to Dave later on so I clearly didn't learn from my first mistake.

Messed up horribly on the last lap with Ross bearing down on me, I just needed to hit my braking point for the last turn, didn't, over compensated and Ross span making sure he avoided me. Apologies Ross, I think I cost you a place there.

Lol, no worries - easily done and I should have expected it given that you were clearly slowing up in the last few corners, I had a faster Ade bearing down on me too so I didn't have much leeway for backing off myself.

All in all, that was a real fun race and given my complete lack of practice I was surprised I had as much close racing as I did.

Cheers, Ross.

[Don]

Bit of a mixed bag for me. Never really felt comfortable and only seemed to be being overtaken for the whole race.
I decided to just try and keep it steady and on the track, which seemed to work until the penultimate lap, when I had a lapper closing on me quick with the next placed guy in his wake,
I tried to leave room on the inside for him round Paddock, but when I ran out of room and had to turn in I clipped the side of his car sending us both off and catching a few cars behind in the chaos, really sorry for that, that spoilt what had been uptil then a clean race.

[Simmo]

That was me Don.  Upto then I'd also had an incident free race!!  I think it was a miss understanding between us.  I was half way alongside as we approached paddock and was expecting you to brake early to let me have the corner.  You braked far later than I expected and as I was too busy looking at you, I missed my braking point, ran wide and we tangled.  I felt really sorry for John Stamper, he was next into Paddock and with you sitting on the left of the track and me on the right he had no chance.  He ducked right to avoid you only to find me sitting there.  Sorry John.

[mr_oily]

That was shaping up to be an epic one for me, not in terms of position but just for pure close quarters stuff, particularly in the early stages. I have to say in terms of racecraft and planning moves etc. that was probably one of my most enjoyable iRaces yet.

Didn't set the world alight with my qually pace, finding Dan's setup shared a few minutes before the session I got all excited but trying it out probably didn't help make the most of my time. Man you drive that thing loose Mr. Minton!! Could tell it would be quick but just didn't have the time to even attempt to learn the technique so reverted back to old faithful for the start.

I was making steady progress until ironically I came across said RVS driver stricken at Druids which promptly cause me to have a panic moment, lift and nearly loose the back end slow-mo style getting myself up the grass in the process.

After that it was attack attack attack (as Murray would say), until I lost some speed catching the gravel on the exit of Paddock which I think was Burtoner's green light to lunge for the inside at Druids regardless. That didn't work  .

Running 6th'ish and close to Stu for quite a few laps, I was hopeful of making something stick if I could keep it together long enough but it wasn't to be and after getting 3/4 of the car alongside on the outside of the exit of Druids I seemed to magically run out of road (yep that was the bump you felt Stu ) and ended up going backwards towards Graham Hill.

The red mist descended and I really enjoyed the laps that followed as I put in a PB trying to catch up with Simmo again. Unfortunately though, while attempting to lap Ben for the fourth time driving what I think was an engine, three wheels and the remanence of some suspension we attempted to mate Skippys at Paddock, ending in heartbreak, rejection and a world of shattered dreams (possibly laying it on a bit thick?).

All in all a great combo and a top Tuesdays night's racing but I'm a bit surprised at the lack of PM's. I've been known to make a mistake *cough* once in a blue moon but I think it's always a nice gesture to acknowledge it. Leaving the race scoring 16 incident points was quite frustrating when three possibly four of those were actually deserved.

P.s - TS3 audio sounds awesome! Unfortunately Legzy's clearer but other than that, job well done lads!

[Simmo]

Sorry for the bump James, wasn't intentional.  I lost where you were.  When I saw you shoot up to my left I thought you had outbraked yourself and gone off and you dissapeared from my mirrors.  I looked to the left and you weren't there then the next thing I felt a bump and you reappeared in my mirrors backwards!!  You have to admit, round the outside at Druids is a bit optimistic, although would have been amazing if you'd pulled it off!!!

We had a great race though, thouroughly enjoyed it.

[Paul Richards]

All in all a great combo and a top Tuesdays night's racing but I'm a bit surprised at the lack of PM's.

Hey dont worry Oily I got a PM being told off for holding someone up while coming out of the pits in practice 

Anyway was trying desperately to get the boy to sleep before qual. Managed to get a few laps in (obviously after causing major meyhem coming out of the pits) before he woke up. Got him out of bed and put him in an electric rocking chair where he could see the screen hoping to hypnotise him to sleep as qual started. It worked because by the end of qual he was soundo. It was then a case of hoping the batteries would hold up before the end of the race!

Struggled to get that many clean laps in kept catching others but when I did get a clear run I put in a couple of good laps doing a 52.8 followed by a 52.7 which was enough for pole.

Took 3.8 gals which was showing plenty of laps in pratice. Got a good start and pulled out a little lead to Paul. After 16 laps or so I checked fuel and it was horribly close! So I started short shifting and going up to 5th on the start/finish straight. I kept checking the fuel level so was losing my concentration a bit and Paul closed back in. Eventually changing down two gears into Paddock caused the rear to step out big time and I couldn't quite catch it and Paul did well to avoid me. That put me 6 secs behind but Paul soon came up on traffic and that dropped to just over 4. I then came up on the same traffic and was on the inside of MJ on the exit of druids. I thought he might let me go but he didnt as I wasn't alongside and came back over in front of me before the T3 left. I then completely misjudged his entry speed and rammed him clean up the rear as he broke earlier than I expected. Sorry MJ. That dropped me behind Ken but I was on his tail and my car was fine and I got back up to 2nd. I then started spluttering at the start of the last lap. It wasnt too bad at first but by the final straight it was so bad both Ken and Gary went passed before the finish.

Congrats to Paul for his win and to everyone else who had good finishes    

[Ken Murray]

Some comments have suggested Brands being a bit of a difficult circuit in the Skippy, but to be honest I don't see it as any harder than many others on the schedule. Laguna has the Corkscrew and Infineon and VIR both have blind cresting corners. Apart from Paddock, Brands is pretty straightforward I'd say?

On the fuel, I actually ran some laps in practice with full tanks and I was still able to do 53.2's, which isn't very far off my PB.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Some comments have suggested Brands being a bit of a difficult circuit in the Skippy, but to be honest I don't see it as any harder than many others on the schedule. Laguna has the Corkscrew and Infineon and VIR both have blind cresting corners. Apart from Paddock, Brands is pretty straightforward I'd say?

It wasn't the theoretical difficulty, Ken, it was the utter lack of any feeling from the car, almost like the circuit had an ultra low grip surface.

[Simmo]

I watched from your cockpit Ken in practice and you use one gear higher than everyone else I watched at Paddock and Clearways which might explain why you were so steady.  I couldn't do what you were doing with my setup so stuck with the lower gears in the end.

[Paul968]

I did paddock in 4th and clearways in 3rd. The extra changes just seemed to get in the way and I wasn't any quicker going down a gear at either corner.

[Ken Murray]

I did paddock in 4th and clearways in 3rd. The extra changes just seemed to get in the way and I wasn't any quicker going down a gear at either corner.

Yes, I think I probably was going down two for Paddock in my early exploratory laps, but I was changing back up so soon going down the hill that I thought it would make sense to stay in 4th. It was a bit harder to get it to initially turn in, but as ever, slow in fast out is often the best way!!

Mind Paul R was going through there much faster than me, that's where he really gained on me and did me in to Druids when he had briefly dropped back behind me.